Value-Based Care

One of the challenges providers will face in the new Oncology Care Model that CMS announced earlier this year is measuring quality and meeting quality standards under, according to Patti Forest, MD, MBA, senior medical director of network quality and performance at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Accountable care organizations were created under the Affordable Care Act to improve healthcare delivery to a defined population. As writers in the new issue of Evidence-Based Oncology discuss, while palliative care exists to raise the quality of life for the seriously ill, it can also speak to the value equation of delivering care that patients want at a lower cost.

Being admitted to the hospital on the weekend is associated with an increased likelihood of a hospital-acquired condition, which in turn increases cost and length of stay, reported researchers from the University of Southern California.

There are concerns that retail clinics provide inferior quality of care. The authors found no difference in quality among retail clinics, physician offices, and emergency departments.

The authors report on a conceptual "specialty ACO" design in cardiology in which cardiology-specific historic spending targets are created to capture cardiovascular disease—related reimbursement and a quality measurement system is introduced.